LEISURE ACTIVITIES



LEISURE ACTIVITIES

• Which activities were practiced by nobility vs. ordinary people

o Leisure activities included sports, hunting, swimming and gymnastics. Both men women and children participated in sports. Social classes played a role n what activities were available.

| | |

|Ordinary Egyptians |Nobility |

|Leisure activities taking place evenings, after work, on days off – Deir |Hunting often the sport associated with the nobility |

|el Medina had workers had one day off every 10 days |New Kingdom tomb paintings (Hunting undertaken in Delta and Marshlands of |

|Some holidays were annual – New Year, Harvest. Religious festivals such |Upper Egypt |

|as Festival of the Valley and Royal celebrations (Sed) |Hunting season was at the end of the floods |

|Leisure time spend in inns; Beer Houses; Brothels |New Kingdom pharaohs saw hunting as advertising their prowess – Seen with |

|Tombs show banquets with larger number of guests |Sety 1 engaging in a lion hunt with Ramesses III |

|Fashionable ladies shown with cones of scented fat on their heads |Historian MANNICHE argues that this was symbolic and indicated the tomb |

|attended by servant girls entertained by singers, musicians, dancers |owners ability to master evil and danger |

|All show the social activities of ordinary Egyptians and the degree in |Hunting of game from the chariot was conducted by nobles and pharaohs – |

|which activities were carried out in association with festivals |dated from the reign of Thutmose IV |

|Gymnastics or athletics were popular leisure pursuits |Fishing was also popular |

|Archery, boxing wrestling and fighting with sticks | |

|There was an International Stick Fencing Championship! | |

|SENET was a popular board game played on wood, stone, clay, bone, | |

|faience, or a grid cut into the ground | |

|TAW – ‘twenty years’ two people facing each other | |

|MEHEN – ‘snake game’ played by up to 6 people | |

|ACTIVITY |INDOOR / OUTDOOR |DESCRITPION |

|Hunting |outdoor |Bird hunts in marshland / Delta of Upper Egypt. |

| | |Best time for hunting at the end of floods. |

| | |Fishing also popular – sitting in armchairs around garden pools. |

| | |Hippopotamus hunting also documented. |

| | |Pharaoh’s involvement: Sety I’s lion hunt |

| | |Ramesses II’s wild cattle hunt |

| | |The first pylon at Medinet Habu depicts Ramesses II hunting wild boars ( pylons used as advertising |

| | |propaganda for pharaohs prowess. |

| | |Tombs scenes depict nobles hunting wild fowl and spearing fish. |

|Athletics activities |outdoor |Young men trained in most athletic disciplines. |

|e.g. archery, boxing,| |Often part of festivals like Heb-Sed along with music, dance and song – pharaoh also supposedly took |

|wrestling, | |part in distance run. |

|stick-fighting, | |Particularly beneficial to soldiers. |

|jumping, running, | |First international stick-fencing contest held between Ramesses II’s young soldiers and units of |

|weightlifting | |foreign troops. |

| | |Paintings show various wrestling hand holds and throws. |

| | |Festivals at time of New Year, Harvest, flood time, etc. |

|Festivals, holidays |outdoor |Images of gods paraded in colourful processions throughout countryside. |

| | |Flood time – effigy of Amun carried aboard a sacred barge up the Nile to Luxor. |

| | |Lodged at temple for a month before returning to Karnak. |

| | |Vast crowds cheered from the riverbanks as Amun processed up and down. |

| | |Pilgrimages to Abydos for Osiris – annual reenactment of Osiris myth |

| | |Images in tomb of Userhat of royal boat and offering to Osiris. |

Leisure Activities of Egyptians in the Ramesside Period Dynasty XIX - XX

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Ostracon, New Kingdom, Dynasties 19–20, ca. 1295–?1069 B.C.

Egyptian; From the Valley of the Kings, western Thebes

Painted limestone

Indoor activities:

• music,

• board games (senet)

• Banquets

|Female musician. Theban Tomb n° 219. Ramesside Period. |

|Musicienne. Tombe thébaine n° 219. Epoque ramesside. |

|MAYSTRE, C., La tombe de Nebenmât, pl.VI, MIFAO 71, Le Caire,|

|1936. |

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